Silverfish
by HarleyRapunzelSong
Summary: You know the story of Katniss and Peeta. But have you ever stopped to think about any other tributes stories?This story is about Mags, the old district 4 tribute, and her hunger games, in which she will have to battle the most greatest evil of all...herself.
1. Chapter 1

"Mag…" my mother says, tears spilling down her pink cheeks. "Remember… we love you."

I smile.

"I will always remember that."

"Pray that you do." She grasps my shoulders with her hands.

I nod, tears filling up my eyes. It wasn't fair. I did nothing wrong, didn't hurt anybody in my lifetime, but yet, I was still chosen. The reason for this, I didn't know. All I knew now was that my death was imminent. I sighed. It just wasn't fair.

"Bye, Mags." My brother came up to me, and threw his tiny arms around my legs. "Come back soon, m'kay?"

I smile sadly. He doesn't know what I'm going into. He doesn't know the danger I'll be in. He's too small to know. Sadly, I pat his head comfortingly. "Okay," is all I can think of to say.

"Maggie." This time my father approaches. "Just…Remember where you're from."

"I will."

He smiles, one big tear slowly rolling down his cheeks.

"Good Girl."

"Times up." A large man comes in, and grabs my family by their arms and leads them out of the room. This was the last time I would ever see them again. And this was the normal treatment, for people like me. Because I was a contestant in the Hunger Games.


	2. The Other Tribute

I walked slowly towards the train car, flipping my head to take one last look back at the district. My home. I would never come back. Ever.

As I turned my head away, I took one step forward into the train, and then promptly fell on my hands and knees. Tears began to run down my cheeks like a river, and I just couldn't face the truth. Not anymore.

Suddenly, I felt a light tap on my shoulder.

"Are you…okay?" The voice was calm, yet had a pang of worry in it.

I looked up into the eyes of a young man, his deep brown eyes glinting sorrowfully. He extended his hand out to me.

"Yes.." I muttered, taking his hand. It was surprisingly cool.

He smiled at me, flashing a gleaming row of white teeth. "I was the same way."

I gave a small snort.

"That's hard to believe."

"But it's true."

"Really?" I asked, wiping my eyes and raising my eyebrows questioningly.

"Uh-huh."

His smile still was shining bright.

"So.. "He asked calmly, "Who do I have the pleasure of meeting on this fine day?"

I smiled, laughing at his little joke.

"Maggie." I said." But everyone calls me Mags."

"Mags…" he said, thinking my name over. "Unusual. I like it."

"And who are you?" I asked, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

"Name's Ray, but everyone calls me Stingray."

"I can't imagine why!"

"I know!" he laughs, grasping my shoulder.

"Hey, Mags." He says, excitedly. "There a whole buffet of food over there, straight from the Capitol itself. And we both know that I can't eat all of that. At least not alone. So what do you say we go and have ourselves a little feast?"

I laugh, tossing my blond curls. "I would love that, Ray."


	3. The Reaping

After Ray and I had basically devoured everything in sight, he shook my shoulders lightly.

"Hey, Mags.." he said, pointing to a chubby woman in a bright green dress sitting in the corner. "Know who that is?"

"Our escort?" I asked, putting down a fork.

"Well, yeah, but do you know who she IS?" He looked at me like it was obvious.

"No…" I began.

"That's the sea-witch." He whispered, staring at me. "Rumor has it that she gobbles up the tributes before they even get to the Capitol. All they find on the train is a pile of bones and a napkin right next to 'em. No one EVER in District 4 makes it to the Capitol. They're all dead before they even reach District 3. So I'd be careful if I were you…"

He smirked, teasingly.

"They do too, there's always District 4 tributes in the Hunger games…"

"But that's just it!" he said, grabbing my hands. "They use Capitol citizens for District 4! I mean, have you ever seen the tributes that got reaped in the arena?"

"Yes." I muttered, raising my eyebrows.

He shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just don't come crying to me when she's at your door eating your arms and legs off…"

I shook my head, showing him that I thought it was all a lie.

"So…" he began again." How was the reaping for you?"

I turned my head to look at him. His face wasn't its normal smiley, teasing self. It was serious and held no emotion within it.

"The reaping…" I muttered, thinking back to this morning, and tears began to fill up my eyes at the mention of it.

The reaping had taken place in town square this morning, people sadly walking into the square, waiting for death. As they look up onto the stage, our escort comes up, clad in a beautiful, but slightly tacky, yellow dress.

"Welcome!" she says happily into the microphone. "The time has come for us to choose one male and female tribute for the _wonderful_ honor of participating in this year's hunger games!"

Quickly, she strides over to the female glass ball, and shoves her chubby hand in. Then, she takes out a small piece of paper, probably the smallest paper out of all of them. She tears it open.

"Mag Silverfish?" she calls into the crowd. "Is there a Mag Silverfish here?" she taps her foot impatiently.

My stomach drops, and before I knows what's happened, I'm on the stage, staring into her bright blue eyes. She smiles at me. I don't smile back. Instead, I look out into the crowd, finally finding my mother. She has her head in her hands, crying. I want to reach out to her and comfort her, but I know I can't. I have to content myself with staring at her sadly.

"Mag?" Ray's voice drifts me out of my daze.

"Huh?"

"The reaping?" he asks again, staring at me with wide eyes.

"Oh, yeah, it was- it was fine.."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah.."

His eyes pierce into me, and I give up.

"Okay.. it wasn't really.. nice.."

This I guess is what he was waiting for, because he slings an arm around by shoulder.

"You know.. I was sad too.."

I just nod and look down at my lap.

"You wanna know the last thing my dad said to me?"

"Sure." I mutter, not looking at him.

"He said, "Ray, I don't like you. Never have. But honestly, make us proud. For mom's sake.""

I look up at him when he says this, and he chuckles. Then he stands up and yawns.

"Well, better be getting to bed. You should too, if you know what's good for you."

And with that, he tottles off to a room, and I do too. But just as I'm about to reach for the doorknob, he calls out.

"Mags?"

"Yeah?"

"Just remember, watch out for the Sea Witch!" He smiles teasingly and closes his door.

I try to sleep that night, but all that I can think about is Ray, my mother, and a vision of our escort chasing me around the room, trying to gnaw my legs off like a crazed mutt.


	4. The Mentors

The next morning, I woke up with a sense of loathing. And yet, I was so sure I was still at home. I figured that my mother was in the kitchen, humming like she always does, and making breakfast. And my brother was surely in the sitting room with my father, talking over some new contraption that they had made. Yes, surely, this had to be the case. In a few minutes my mother would shake me awake, and I would sit down to a nice breakfast of fruit and bread. And then I would go to school. Hope began to fill up inside me, but when I opened my eyes and saw the bright green fluorescent walls, it quickly went away. I was still in The Hunger Games.

Slowly, sighing, I jumped out of the fluffy bed, and walked right past the shower room. I didn't at all feel like showering while I was in this place. I turned the handle to the door, and walked down the hall back to the main compartment, where Ray was surprisingly sitting looking refreshed. He caught sight of me and waved.

"Hey, Mag! Come on over here! The food's delish!"

I smiled slowly. I wasn't to be won over so easy while I was still in a bad mood.

I sat down. Quickly, Ray shoved something into my hands. When I looked at him for explanation, all he said was: "Try it! It's THE BEST THING you'll ever eat, EVER!"

I looked at him suspiciously. After last night, I wasn't sure what was fact or fiction coming from Ray. But still, I took a bite of the soft something in my hands, and my mouth instantly began to water as I scarfed the rest of it down.

"Woah! Take it easy tiger! You're not going to run out! There's plenty here!"

"What WAS that?" I asked incredulously as I began to grab up the delicious food from the table.

He laughed, showing off his white teeth. "They call it coffeecake. And hey! Save some for me!"

He said this because I started shoving every piece of coffeecake I could find on the table into my mouth.

"Ohmp, Sowwri." I said through my mouthful of food.

He chuckled. "Nah, it all right. But save some room for lunch later! I heard they have this thing called 'pie' and that it's to die for!"

I began to laugh, forgetting my mood from earlier, and then I swallowed breathlessly.

Suddenly a thought came to mind.

"Hey," I asked, grabbing an apple from a nearby basket. "Do you know who our mentors are?"

Ray thought for a second. "No, no idea. But I heard that they're coming to lunch this morning to meet us…"

Just then, right as he said that, two people pushed into the room, one was brandishing a purple handbag and the other holding a hairbrush.

One look at them and instantly I could tell they were our mentors. And I could also tell that they were big on the capitol fashions.

The woman, for example, was young, maybe a little older than us, and had her skin died a light pink, and her hair done up in intricate buns up high on her head. Also, she had bright blue eye shadow, long eyelashes, and her lips were shaded a dark red.

The man, on the other hand, was a little bit older, and had his orange hair spiked up so that it looked really pointy, tall, big black boots on, and purple lipstick on his big lips.

As they approached us, I quickly, took a step back and so did Ray, I guess in the hopes of trying to get them away from us, but it was too late, they were already staring at us with humungous eyes.

"Why, HELLO!" the woman said to me with a thick capitol accent. "You must be the tributes this year. And aren't you the cutest little things!" She grabbed Ray's cheeks with her chubby hands. "Yes you are! Yes you are!"

"What are we, dogs?" I muttered under my breath sarcastically.

The woman didn't seem to hear my comment and kept talking. "Well, we are your mentors, and my name is Penelope, and this handsome man over here is Dash." She smiled, and then looked at us seriously. "Those are pronounced PEN-ELL-O-PEE, and DAH-SHAH."

Apparently we were dumb and dogs. Ray and I exchanged a look.

"So, anyway, to get down to our first order of business, we are going to get to know you a little better! You," she said staring at me with icy blue eyes. "What is your name, dear?"

"Mags." I said, quietly.

"Well, Mags, nice to meet you." She quickly moved on to Ray without even giving me a second glance. "And what is your name, cutie?"

"Ray." He said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Ray!" The woman exclaimed happily. "Oh, Ray, what a wonderful name! Don't you think so Dash?"

She looked over to the man, who was too busy combing his hair. "What? Oh, yeah. Absolutely darling."

"You look like you have real potential!" she said, flashing Ray a smile.

I about vomited all the coffeecake I had eaten up onto the carpet at that comment. Ray looked over at me. Penelope didn't seem to notice.

"Well, now that we've met you, let's go over here and talk about some things you might need to know in The Hunger Games!" She beckoned to Ray to sit down, and as he followed, he turned his head to me and quickly slid this hand across his throat and made a gagging sound. I laughed as I followed them, but honestly, I don't think Penelope even remembered I was there anymore.

The 'things' she said we needed to know about the Hunger Games was actually basically just a way that Penelope got to flirt with Ray some more. Throughout the entire thing, she kept flipping her hair and saying 'um,' and giggling a lot. Okay, now I definitely knew I was going to barf.

Later, after Penelope and Dash had left, (Penelope with a kiss in Ray's direction) we all sat down in a sitting room with our escort , watching the recaps of the reapings in the districts. Of course, the tributes from Districts 1 and 2 were big, bulky people, and they looked like they could kill you just by looking at you. The other districts though were a little better. Like, in District 5, there was a small, tiny, shrimp of a girl with long, brown, curly locks, and a long, pinched up face. She couldn't be more than twelve or thirteen.

And in District 8, there was a boy about our age with long blond hair that looked like it needed cutting, blue eyes, and a pimply complexion. Ray laughed when he saw him.

After the recaps were over, we were ordered to go to bed. As I made my way over to the door, Ray whispered to me from the crack In his door.

"Hey, uh, Mags?" he whispered slowly.

"Yeah? I asked.

"Hey, you know, this is our last night on the train, and I was wondering…would you..like to sleep with me in here tonight? We don't even have to sleep! Just to talk, I mean. Before we get to the Capitol and the arena." He said quickly, avoiding any implications.

"Um..sure.." I said slowly, surprised at him. I walked through his door and sat down on the bed.

"Thanks." He said smiling. He looked relieved. He sat down next to me.

"So, Mags?" he asked, running his fingers through his hair slowly.

"Yeah?" I asked, staring into his eyes.

"You know..I…" he faltered. "I…" he tried again.

"Yes?"

"You know..I…really miss my family.." he said lamely.

"Yeah, me too… "I said, still staring at him.

"Well, it's just that..I can't… we can't…only one victor.." he muttered, trying to find the right words to say.

Suddenly, I was filled with an impulse I had never known before. And before I knew what was happening, I had grabbed his face, and pulled him into a tight embrace. He looked genuinely stunned for a minute, and then closed his eyes, giving up to me. Then, I pulled away, and both of us stared at each other for a long time.

Suddenly, he broke the silence.

"Wow…" he said, staring at me. "Is that what it feels like to kiss the perfect girl?"

I blushed, embarrassment filling me. I shouldn't have kissed him, but yet, it felt so right at the time. I mean, he was only my friend, we weren't…were we?

I smiled, and he smiled back.

Slowly, I reached out my hand and placed it beside him, and he grasped it in his.

He examined our closely locked hands.

"Perfect." He said, staring at our hands together.

I smiled, the hope from this morning filling me up again, but also with a feeling I couldn't recognize. As I drifted off to sleep that night, I could hear Ray's voice echoing in my ears.

"_Perfect."_

And it was.


End file.
